Here lately I guess I have been to helpful since I'm starting to get more and more calls from potential clients asking technical questions but then not using me. I don't mind helping out, but I don't want to just be used. I need to eat just like everyone else.

31 Replies

Don't give them free advice. Welcome to "reseller syndrome." SMB clients get used to having never met professional consultants before and are used to dealing with resellers (or vendors) who give free "advice" - really just a sales pitch. They are addicted to their free "advice" and they assume that someone else is paying you and/or that you, being a computer guy, "owe" it to them as non-computer people (actually said to me.)

Just don't give it out. Someone unwilling to pay for advice today will never, ever pay for advice.

And don't think that giving them a taste of your skills for free will help. It won't. They'll just move on to the next guy giving some advice out for free trying to tempt them to buy more. And don't think that free advice will turn into lucrative "other" work. It doesn't. The most important, expensive thing you do is that advice. If you give that out for free, you've made it too expensive to use you for the "other" work. Now that you've provided the skill portion, they can get someone far less skilled, cheaper to do the implementation.

Don't give them free advice. Welcome to "reseller syndrome." SMB clients get used to having never met professional consultants before and are used to dealing with resellers (or vendors) who give free "advice" - really just a sales pitch. They are addicted to their free "advice" and they assume that someone else is paying you and/or that you, being a computer guy, "owe" it to them as non-computer people (actually said to me.)

Just don't give it out. Someone unwilling to pay for advice today will never, ever pay for advice.

Good points.

So how do you handle it? "Yeah I'll help you, who do I send the invoice to?"

NTG's procedure: My guys will reel someone in with the initial yeah we can help you with that. The end no more technical then that. If you have more then one person in your shop for this step it really is the best, they then pass them off to a member of our management team. They, (management team) who have technical skills they refuse to acknowledge and use, are the first ones to really connect with the client. The discussion that I generally have is the business side of things, explain how a consult works and what type of work that we have done in the past etc. and say yes we can help you with that. Discuss your hourly rate structure (or however it works for you) and leave it at that. Explain consultation's are not scheduled until a prepaid amount has been received. Accepting credit cards goes a long way on this one as your start of work can be same day.

This establishes your value right off. No doubting that you are worth every dime they will pay you for your skills!

Make them an offer they can't refuse. ... No not threatning to break body parts just be honest with them upfront and say it sounds like we can do this for you no problem, here is how much it would cost. Would you like to proceed or do you have a time frame we can look at the project to create a pathway to success for you?

Here lately I guess I have been to helpful since I'm starting to get more and more calls from potential clients asking technical questions but then not using me. I don't mind helping out, but I don't want to just be used. I need to eat just like everyone else.

How do you handle clients like this?

Rule of thumb: theory is free, teaching costs money.

Example:

If someone calls me up and asks, "Can I do <<insert perfectly mundane IT task fully documented on teh Interwebz>>?", my answer is, "Sure you can."

They'll invariably follow up with, "How?" My reply at that point is something along the lines of, "I'd be happy to do that for you. It will cost about $X." At that point in the conversation, things will go one of a few ways:

They realize what a douchbag they are for attempting to get the guy who feeds his family with his IT expertise to hand out that expertise for free, and say, "Sounds great. When can you start?"

They realize what a douchbag they are for attempting to get the guy who feeds his family with his IT expertise to hand out that expertise for free, and say, "Thanks for your time."

They utterly fail to understand their douchbaggery and proceed to try to wheedle specific information out of me. This is met with me getting fairly blunt. "Let me see if I understand where this conversation is going. I'm hearing you ask me to walk you through <<desired IT task>> over the phone - for free. Do I understand your intent correctly?" Conversation resets to Items 1 and 2.

In extreme cases, I simply say, "I'd be happy to help you with this issue, but there are fees involved for my expertise. We can continue with a phone consultation if you wish. I'll need to take your credit card info before we get going, and you'll be billed in increments of $50/30 minutes (or part thereof). I estimate this will take between 2 and 3 hours to walk through. Alternately, we can schedule a time for me to come do this. It will take about an hour for me to handle, and will cost you about $125. How would you like to proceed?" Refer to Items 1 and 2.

Point being: Don't deal with douchebags.

I'll have brief conversations with my regular clients where I do, in fact, give it away for free. But that's only because I know they're regular clients who will return to me AND speak highly of me to their associates. With new clients (or potential clients), however, it's critically important to clearly set the tone up front.

1st Post

I know your story all too well. For many years we've had passer-by's that ask technical questions who had no intend to buy anything. After a long while of this, you can usually figure out who's full of hot air by how they open their dialogue with you.

Here lately I guess I have been to helpful since I'm starting to get more and more calls from potential clients asking technical questions but then not using me. I don't mind helping out, but I don't want to just be used. I need to eat just like everyone else.

How do you handle clients like this?

and lets not forget that old favourite - Mates Rates !!!!!

and family who call to ask for a 'favour' because you work with computers ...............

I agree totally with Scott and Bryce. I am a junior admin, and I have people asking me all the time for help with personal devices. My manager has approved me taking repairs from people, as long as it does not interfier with my work. I will look at something, let them know what the problem is, and the cost to repair. I had one person try to haggle with me on price, and I told her I would give her computer back for the negotiated price, minus her data. This was after we agreed to a price for my services. She agreed to pay the agreed upon amount..

People will always try to get something from you for free. I explain it to people in this context (from my G##k Sq87d days)

(This may date me a bit....)

Customer: I want to know how to put music in my iPod

Me: I can show you. That will be $20 for private training.

Customer: I can't afford that. Can't you just show me really quick?

Me: Sure I can. The reason we charge for the service is because no one teaches us, we spend our time to read and learn these things. We have to charge because this is my job, and how I get a paycheck.

Usually one of 2 situations happened:

1) The customer understood, paid the money, and I trained him.

2) The customer got upset and stormed off.

I have not had anyone tell me anything like Scott (I just get guilt trips all the time) but there is always someone asking for something for free. Treat it like the business decision it is. Tell them you can solve it, and give an estimate. If you come in under, great. If it turns into more, contact the person and see what they want to do.

Sometimes our culture of wanting to help and "scratch the itch" will cause us to divulge more information than we should. Yes we've studied and worked hard for the knowledge & skills we have obtained. Yes we like to share however we need to get paid because we to must pay our bills. Your knowledge and experience is a good thing. So is your wanting to help others with your tech skills.

Working for a company and get asked personal help all the time. I tell them advice is free but working on their project will have a cost. Friends at a LAN party I will help for free... got to game!!! Outside of that depends on the emotional bank account for both friends and relatives. When it comes to strangers find out if they would give away their professional knowledge for free? Often when explained like the folks above have done so well you will find a willing client. I've seen a lot of great advise on this thread.

As a consultant, I only get paid if I am billing my time to a client. When I get things like this I simply ask them if they want me to set them up as a client. If they ask me to do it not through my company, I immediately quote them $100 / hour. That typically results in what is your company's rate? Funny thing, the answer is the same.

As a consultant, I only get paid if I am billing my time to a client. When I get things like this I simply ask them if they want me to set them up as a client. If they ask me to do it not through my company, I immediately quote them $100 / hour. That typically results in what is your company's rate? Funny thing, the answer is the same.

Things smooth out from there or they go away.

Now that is funny. I have yet to run into that but it wouldn't surprise me.

I make friends and family compensate my for my time in baked goods, because I feel bad charging friends, but I love pies.

When I worked at Staples as an Easy Tech (dumb name, I know) I would just tell people to call the toll support number, or I would tell them that the issue would be too complex to explain over the phone/face too face and they would need to check in the computer for service and explain pricing.

If they got pushy about service fees, I would explain to that they wouldn't take their car to a dealer and ask them to be shown how to change their spark plugs for free. That would usually piss off customers, or show them the error of their ways. if they got mad I would give them a complaint card, my manager loved seeing that we weren't giving away free tech support because we had a few former techs who would take the customers info and do the work under the table.

I've developed a very simple method, based on patience/urgency balance. When somebody approaches me with a technical question, or a hardware problem, it's all about on how much in a hurry the person is. Like, we all have idle times. I usually say that if whatever the problem may be, can stay with me for a week or so, I'd be glad to have a look at it in my free time. But if one wants it done for next day, or even better, immediately, there's a substantial charge since I need to book my time for the specified task. And I'm busy. Always. :)

This is a simple method of diverting the pressure of the decision back to the person who asked. Smart ones wait. Others pay. All of them are satisfied since the decision was their own all along.

When I get a new client they get a copy of my rate sheet. It states my hourly rate, travel time charges, on site minimum of one hour, phone and remote support will be billed in increments of 15 minutes, etc. Clients that I have had for a while and have been good to me will get a quick phone call for free. If they are a PITA the clock starts when I say hello. For a new customer that is going to have a bunch of hours very quickly I will ask for a partial payment up front or use Square to bill them at the end of the day. It is 3% or so but to me it is worth $30 to make sure I don't get stiffed for $1000.

I learned this the hard way when I worked for Firedog back in my undergrad days. So many people asking to just be shown something real quick for free. When a customer would walk up with a computer after the initial questions of what they were bringing the computer in for we let them know either diagnostics or training fees up front. If they still tried to haggle on pricing I would tell them what less they would get for the lesser price.

Ex:

A customer brings in a horribly virus infested system (of which the customer would say that it was not because of porn but their kid did something) and wants to know how to remove the virus. I would let them know that for $199 we will remove the virus fully rescan all their files, fix any registry corruptions and install an antivirus on their system. If we are not able to remove the virus we will backup their data reinstall the OS and perform all the updates, scan their files and put them back on the system and install an antivirus.

One of three things would happen

1. They would agree and pay the fee and the work would be done.

2. They stare at me like I just punched them in the face then walk away

3. They haggle on pricing

If #3 occurred the most common number I got was $50. When that happened I would say, well in that case if $50 is what you want to pay I can sell you an antivirus and install it and you can hope that when you go home with it, it will remove just enough of the virus to make your computer usable again before it later kills Windows entirely. There are no guarantees that it will work and you may be back later to see me.

after that 1 of 2 things would happen. They would give in and pay or they would walk away and then often times come back and week or so later when their computer was no longer usable.

Once moving into the further from retail market I would have customers wanting me to walk them through setting up their Outlook or configure their router. I would let them know that I'm able to perform the tasks for them but that its this specific price. If they try to get me to walk them through it for free I tell them that google can help them at the budget they have set for the project. Either they pay for it to be done right or they can give google a try and hope they figure it out or they pay me more to undo their mistakes and perform the setup properly.

Advice is free teaching is not. Your potential customers need to understand the difference. I have no issues giving my opinion if they ask what brand to pick, or if a certain type of software would be worth the investment for them, but configuring something or walking them through troubleshooting comes at a price.

I basically say "let me get you set up in our accounting system so we can get the invoices sent after we're done. We charge $60/hr for phone consulting and remote support work and we charge in .5 hour increments."